Providing spiritual and parenting support in the West Kimberley

I was shocked when she said that she was 41. “That’s younger than me! You’ve got many years ahead of you if you stop drinking.” Greg and I were on a walk around the neighbourhood at dusk when we came across a couple in the park who were drunk. The woman was distressed and called out to us to help her. As we got closer we saw she had blood running down her chin. She was upset because her husband had hit her. When Greg asked him if this was true, he offered up his lame excuse, “She’s my wife. She didn’t wake me up when I was sleeping.” She asked us to ring the police, so we did. While we were waiting, I comforted and prayed with Veronica and after a while they both started chatting. “When we get our house we’ll stop drinking,” was the drift of their talk. Some people say its futile to try and witness to a drunk person, and maybe it is, but sometimes they are more open and can take it straight when you tell them they have to stop drinking and call out to God to help them in Jesus’ name. She did that in front of us. Then showed us a photo of her adult son in her wallet, and they told us they were artists, and she does really good dot paintings. “I told her that that is a gift that God has given her and that is what she should do. She needs to get rid of the grog and put Jesus in its place.” Then the police came and said, “Thanks. We’ve got this.” And we walked home.
Please pray with us for these people who God has created in His image and has planned so much more for them than the life they are living.
Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Matthew 19:26

One of the local Christian ladies cutting out a donkey for the Christmas play

Linda working on drawing a sheep for the play

Paul about to take Brian for a joy flight

Paul teaching about “The Greatest Gift at Christmas – Jesus”

Yesterday Pastor Paul White, David Powell, Greg & myself took two planes out to One Arm Point for our final Student Focus of the year. Because David has been checking out Kingdom Aviation for possible ministry, we took the two planes so that he could see One Arm Point & take photos for support raising purposes. It was the first time for me to fly with Greg, which was very cool! I went with the purpose of connecting with the women and steering towards encouraging mums in their parenting. That is the hope and goal we have to prepare for next year’s plan of having 4 the Family come and work on producing a parenting DVD for Indigenous people. It can be frustrating and disappointing putting all the effort of preparing to travel and speak into the lives of women and then get there to find not much happening and not many women around to chat with. But the time of year, and people out of town mean that we have to do the best with what we have. What IS happening though, is that relationships are being formed little by little and trust is being built up with those key women that are around. I had one lady who is a Christian grandma, pour out her concerns and some encouragements about her grandchildren. As is the problem for so many, she has adult children who are making bad choices to drink and neglect their children. But she shared with me how her 7 year old grandson has been asking searching questions about God. She also shared deep concern about one of her other young grandsons who has expressed the desire to take his own life. After Bible study, a woman around my own age asked us to really be praying in the lead up to their Christmas celebration as they are planning to have a play showing the real meaning of Christmas for the first time in her memory. She said every other year the community have always done something else, but its never been about the birth of Jesus. She is very busy organising this and has a lot of pressure on her.We had a good time playing games with the school kids after school with games like skulling a half chewed up lolly with cordial (I know, gross, but they love it). Dropping cotton balls dipped in honey onto your partner’s face to make the best beard, racing to make your partner into the best looking Christmas tree with newspaper, etc. In the middle, a devotion is given, which yesterday was about not ignoring the best gift of all at Christmas – Jesus. The kids were very attentive (as you can see in the picture). So, overall, it was a good day of ministry.

On Monday the 7th November I was privileged to begin regular visits to the One Arm Point Aboriginal Community, as part of a Kingdom Aviation & 4 The Family initiative to encourage biblical parenting. Pastor Paul White (of the Derby Baptist Church) who has had close connections to this community for many years, flew me out and introduced me to some of the locals there. We started out hoping for and expecting contact with the community chair person, an Indigenous Christian lady, but unfortunately, she was busy dealing with a community issue all day. Not to worry, we headed over to the community hall, where we found some of the local women doing art and craft. This was a relaxed setting in which to chat and get to know the ladies, and introduce the concept of running a Terrific Toddlers course. This is the result of a request for biblical parenting teaching made two years ago by the women of the community after Bill & Joan Grosser, (parenting counsellors) came and ran sessions called “Will My Child Be Okay?”. Those sessions were well received and the people involved expressed the real need for this sort of teaching in their community, where some of the children are left to themselves or are forced to endure an environment of fighting, drinking and neglect. Our hope is to work with those parents that are wanting to be responsible and encourage them to become good models for others to witness. Although the numbers of women were few yesterday, we hope to return each Monday until the end of term and try and encourage the mothers with small children to come and watch the Terrific Toddlers DVD (one small session at a time), and discuss the principles involved. This is a small and fledgling work, but we pray that it will be used in the hands of God to bring about positive and lasting change where its needed.One Arm Point has a history of Christianity, largely due to dedicated missionaries who lived and ministered in the area for many years, but have now left and not been replaced. The local people, especially those who are older, are very positive in their talk about these missionaries and the legacy they left.

After spending the morning chatting with the ladies, Pastor Paul & I walked over to the school grounds and ran games and a talk with approx. 8 – 10 of the junior high students. This weeks theme is rope games, including skipping, lassoing & tug of war. The talk was all about trusting in God, who loves us and sets us free from feeling trapped and ashamed. Most of the kids sat and listened well to this talk.Then, it was onto the Bible study at the local church, which is an open shelter with wooden slat seats and shade cloth in place of walls. Pastor Paul led a simple study on Mary & Elizabeth’s greeting and being filled with the Spirit. This was received well by the four people who came. It was encouraging to hear the testimony of one woman (about my age) who shared with me on the walk back through town how the power of prayer changed her from an angry, hurting woman to a woman with peace.Back in the plane at 4.25 pm, we prepared for take off and enjoyed the beautiful blue sea views on the way home.